Ultimates, the “Ultimate Universe” version of The Avengers by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch, started in 2002. Over the intervening five years, they’ve managed to release all of 26 issues – thirteen each of “seasons” 1 and 2. Twenty-six issues in sixty-four months. Not exactly speedy release. When each “season” launched, it started as nearly monthly, before slowing down to quarterly-or-so for the final issues. Issue #12 of Ultimates 2, the previous issue, shipped in September of 2006 – making it eight months between that issue and the newest one.

All-Star Batman, and Robin the Boy Wonder started in July of 2005. The first three issue shipped more-or-less bi-monthly, while #4 shipped in May of 2006 – making it a full year since they’ve bothered to ship an issue.

Add to that, that several of the magazines sprung out of features/columns in other magazines and, yeah, I’m willing to come out and say that Twomorrows is caught in a cycle of diluting their own readership with umpteenth variations of the same article. If Twomorrows really wants the sales that come with appealing to a mass-audience, they need to produce a product that appeals to a mass audience, instead of a litany of ever-narrowing niche magazines. Sure, sometimes you end up with a Comicology or some other noble failure, and some magazines are all about their format (the massive Kirby Collectors), but…? Draw, Write, Rough Stuff? All of that together is barely one monthly magazine. And economy of scale? I’d rather have one magazine that sold 3000 copies than 3 that sold 12-1500.

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I envy John Morrows. As a small-press publisher who didn’t make a go of it (but may try again), he’s doing a great job. On the other hand … there is some repetition. One magazine features an artist in depth, which the other magazines features tons of sketches by the same artist. A great deal of “Sister Magazine” promotion. Sometimes, ROUGH STUFF seems more like a supplement to BACK ISSUE or DRAW! rather than its own magazine.

I don’t get the shade being thrown in TwoMorrows’ direction over the past week or two. It’s not like they’re flooding the market with 60+ variations on the same theme every month, tieing most of them into each other in attempt to wring every possible dollar out of their core audience as possible. While there is definitely some overlap between some of their magazines, each one has a more distinct editorial mission (and target audience) than the output of most other multi-title comics publishers.

ie: ROUGH STUFF, which I enjoyed as a section in BACK ISSUE, has no particular appeal to me as a stand-alone publication, but there is definitely an audience for it that isn’t necessarily interested in the BI’s nostalgic editorial coverage.